4 Table of Contents Introduction Part One - The Seed Market Global Perspective...2 Country and Regional Focus India...6 South Africa Brazil....8 The United States....9 The European Union Tanzania...11 Cambodia Part Two - The Food Market Global Perspective...15 Country and Regional Focus India...18 South Africa Brazil...19 The United States...19 The European Union Tanzania...20 Cambodia Conclusion...24 Appendix I: How Different Countries Protect Their Plant Varieties...25 Appendix II: Data Sources for Charts...32

5 Introduction The aim of this document is to supplement Seeds of Hunger: Intellectual Property Rights on Seeds and the Human Rights Response, published by 3D Trade Human Rights Equitable Economy in May 2009, with facts and figures on the global seed and food markets. Seeds of Hunger highlighted two major trends in the worldwide food supply chain. First, intellectual property rights (IPRs) on seeds the basic unit of agricultural production and the basis of life itself are expanding. Second, market concentration all along the food supply chain is rising. In light of such trends, this report examines all parts of the supply chain, from its beginnings, the seed sector, to the last step, food retailing, and highlights possible implications. The document contains five sections: an introduction, a chapter on the seed industry and one on the food industry, conclusions and an appendix. The two industry analyses are divided into two segments, each first depicting the global features of the industry; then exposing a cross-section of national realities through selected case studies. These are India, South Africa, Brazil, the United States of America, the European Union, Tanzania and Cambodia. Clearly, these countries and regions embody completely different realities. However, the goal is not to compare them with each other, but to assess whether territories endowed with different geographical, economic, social and cultural features experience the mentioned trends in a similar way. Although a regional organisation, the European Union (EU) is also included because of its common policy related to the seed market and because its size matches that of countries like India, the USA and Brazil better than any single European country. Both industry sections look at the size of the relevant market, in absolute and relative terms, and at its structure to try to gauge market concentration. Depending on available data, the main actors both domestic and international are then identified. Also looked at are the domestic legislations in place to protect plant varieties in the countries examined, considering that, as elaborated in Seeds of Hunger, the augmented use of commercial seeds goes hand in hand with, and is in part caused by, intellectual property (IP) systems that increasingly advantage seed corporations. 1 Appendix I explains and presents a detailed list of the main legal instruments used by countries to protect IP in the field of agriculture. Appendix II lists all data sources for the charts in the document. 1 To a large extent, this has been facilitated by the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and by the 1994 WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Both contributed to the raise of IP protection standards in agriculture for their members. 1

6 Part One - The Seed Market Global Perspective It is often assumed that the global seed market includes only commercial transactions. In fact, the seed market can be divided in a commercial and a non-commercial sector. The first refers to the part of the market that is affected by monetary transactions. It includes proprietary and non-proprietary seeds. The proprietary market concerns seeds produced by private companies subject to IP legislation, while the non-proprietary market is made up of seeds commercialised through public programmes. The non-commercial seed market coincides with saved seeds, i.e. harvested seeds shared among and re-sown by farmers. According to Context Network, a market analysis firm, the commercial proprietary market accounted for 67 percent of the total world seed market, the commercial non-proprietary segment equalled 11 percent and the non-commercial one represented 22 percent in However, Market share Chart 1 Evolution of market concentration in the global seed industry % 75 % 50 % 25 % Top 3 corporations Top 10 corporations The rest of the market (not including the top 10) large regional disparities lurk behind these figures. In India, for instance, saved seeds represent 70 percent of the total national market, while in the United States, already in the 1960s, the rate of saved seeds in the corn segment was less than 5 percent. 2 As shown in Chart 1, market concentration in the seed industry has skyrocketed since 1996, when a series of big mergers started affecting the whole agro-industry. In 1998, ten corporations dominated the market. In 2000, they had shrunk to seven and in 2001 to six. 3 Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta took the lead of the process in the commercial seed sector. US-based Monsanto in particular pursued an acquisition and investment strategy that enabled it to become the global leader in seeds. In 1996, Monsanto was not even in the top 10 ranking, while today, it owns a 17 percent share of the global commercial market. The corporation began its expansion in North America. When it bought Asgrow and DeKalb Genetics during , Monsanto obtained 14 percent of the corn and 19 percent of the soybean domestic market. Through acquiring Holdens Foundation Seeds, it strengthened its market power over the commercialization of germ plasm. 4 Next, it expanded abroad by purchasing Cargill s international seed business. 5 In 2004, Monsanto launched a new round of acquisitions. The most important were the canola seed operations of Advanta in 2004, Seminis Inc. in 2005, worth $1.4 billion 6 and Delta Pine and Land in 2006, worth $1.5 billion. 7 Swiss-based Syngenta threw itself in the scramble for acquisitions as well, but at a slower pace than Monsanto. In 2004, the company bought a 90 percent stake in Advanta s North American corn and soybean businesses, as well as in the Golden Harvest Group of Companies, increasing its US corn 2

7 and soybean market share to 15 percent and 13 percent respectively. DuPont, also headquartered in the USA, struck an important deal at the end of the 1990s, by acquiring the then leader of the seed market Pioneer Hi-Bred International for $7.7 billion. 8 Thereafter, the corporation resorted to a different strategy, made up of agreements with independent companies aimed at sharing germ plasm and involving co-branding and distribution under non- Pioneer brands. 9 As a consequence, the seed market has become much less competitive, with the top ten seed corporations owning 50 percent of the commercial seed world market. Broken down, this figure reveals that concentration is even higher at the top of the ranking. The top three companies together own 35 percent of the market and the top 5 account for 42 percent. In 1996, the aggregate market share of the ten biggest companies equalled 18 percent, while the relative figure for the biggest three and five corporations were 10 percent and 13 percent, respectively. This means that concentration within the Chart 2 Top 10 corporations market share of the global seed market Other companies 50 % Total top % DuPont (USA) 22 % Syngenta (Switzerland) 13 % Groupe Limagrain (France) 8 % Monsanto (USA) 35 % Land O'Lakes (USA) 7 % KWS AG (Germany) 5 % Bayer Crop Science (Germany) 4 % Sakata (Japan) 3 % DLF-Trifolium (Denmark) 2 % Takii (Japan) 2 % 3

8 seed market has increased nearly threefold, if we consider the top ten corporations, and slightly more if we take into account the top three and top five ones. Market concentration in the pesticide sector dwarfs that of the seed industry. As shown in Charts 3 and 4, the biggest ten corporations together control 82 percent of the pesticides world business. This situation is not new, since it can be traced back at least to the mid-1990s. Furthermore, four out of the ten biggest companies in the pesticide sector are also among the top ten leaders of the seed market. This translates into commercial strategies that give buyers little choice but to buy the products from the same suppliers. The best example is provided once again by Monsanto. The company engineers seeds that are tolerant only to its own herbicides. Hence, the company manages to bridge its pesticides ( crop protection ) and seed businesses, increasing customers dependence on its products. Chart 4 Top 10 corporations market share of the global pesticides market Bayer (Germany) 17 % Others 18 % BASF (Germany) 9 % Syngenta (Switzerland) 18 % Dow AgroSciences (USA) 9 % Monsanto (USA) 10 % DuPont (USA) 5 % Makhteshim Agan (Israel) 4 % Nufarm (Australia) 4 % Sumitomo Chemical (Japan) 4 % Arysta Lifescience (Japan) 2 % Chart 3 Evolution of market concentration in the global pesticides industry % Market share 75 % 50 % 25 % Top 3 corporations Top 10 corporations The rest of the market (not including the top 10) 4

10 Country and Regional Focus This section looks at the seed markets in India, South Africa, Brazil, the United States, the European Union, Tanzania and Cambodia. For each case, an attempt is made to measure market concentration and to provide information about the legal framework pertaining to the protection of plant varieties. India The Indian seed market is the sixth largest in the world, with an estimated value of $1.1 billion, accounting for 3.7 percent of the global seed market. India s consumption of commercial seed has skyrocketed in the last two years, running at a 12 percent rate. 1 Multinational corporations are not yet very active. 70 percent of the Indian seed market is made up of saved seeds, 26 percent is distributed through public seed companies and only 4 percent is sold by private companies. Nevertheless, Monsanto and Syngenta are actively engaged in the hybrid seed market through their local branches in India. Compared to the global market, the market in hybrid seeds is growing twice as much in India. 2 The relevance of the Indian seed market is easily grasped when considering that about one sixth of the world population lives in this country and that irrigated land and farmland areas are respectively the largest and second largest in the world. 3 Legally, India distinguishes itself from other countries presented as it has not joined the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). In 1966, the Indian government passed a law on seeds that introduced the category of notified seeds, namely seeds that have to conform to a certain minimum standard. With the introduction of this law, selling of varieties without prior testing of their quality was forbidden, but the act said nothing about non- notified varieties. Therefore, it did not affect the overwhelmingly traditional exchange of seeds. 4 In 1988, a new policy on seeds development opened up the market to private companies. Imports of vegetable seeds became legal, and companies that struck collaboration deals with foreign corporations were allowed to import crop seeds for two years. To comply with the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), India devised a sui generis system in 2001 by adopting the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Rights Act. Despite pressure from the seed industry, the bill defends farmers rights by allowing them...to save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected Moreover, it provides that breeders who want to build upon farmers varieties to obtain an essentially derived variety need farmers permission. Once the authorisation received, a share of the profits yielded by the new variety must be paid to a national gene fund. 6 In 2002, India allowed Monsanto to commercialize Bt Cotton in the country. 7 Two years later, the Indian parliament approved a new law on seeds. However, the bill was considered too biased in favour of breeders and its entry into force was put on hold pending a report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture. An amended bill proposed in 2008 has yet to be approved. Therefore, the 1966 Seed Law and the 2001 Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Rights Act currently regulate the market. South Africa The South African seed market is the largest on the African continent, with an estimated value of $300 million. 8 Unfortunately, not 6

11 Chart 6 Share of the proprietary, non prorietary and non-commercial segments in the Indian seed market Saved seeds 70 % Non-proprietary 26 % Proprietary 4 % much data is available about the share of the national market held by private and public companies. The case is presented, nevertheless, because the South African market of genetically modified (GM) seeds is one of the most developed in the world. Suffice it to say that, today, South Africa is the 20th biggest commercial seed market in the world, but it ranks 8th as far as GM seeds are concerned. In other African countries, farmer-saved seeds represent about 90 percent of the total seed market. In South Africa, a large commercial agricultural sector exists in parallel with widespread subsistence farming by mostly poor smallholders. Commercial agriculture occupies about 80 percent of the agricultural land, while small farmers, which make up about one third of the country s population, till the remainder 9 and chiefly use harvested seeds. In the agro-industrial sector, commercial seeds are predominant. South Africa has been one of the first countries in the continent to devise a policy on plant variety protection. This can be traced back to 1976, when the Plant Breeders Rights Act was approved, making provisions for the protection of plant varieties. It was coupled with the Plant Improvement Act, which regulated the distribution and sale of plants and propagating material. In 1978, the country joined UPOV. 10 Farmers rights are partly addressed in Article 23 of the Plant Breeders Rights Act, which provides that farmers can re-sow protected seeds insofar as these have been produced on their own land. 11 This provision notwithstanding, South Africa has actively opposed the system of community and farmers rights embodied in the African Model Law and has instead sought to develop more traditional systems of intellectual property rights intended to promote the adoption of agricultural biotechnology. 12 In 1997, the Act on Genetically Modified Organisms paved the way for the introduction of genetically modified (GM) varieties in the maize, cotton and soybean sectors. More recently, the government stated why South Africa must go for GM production: South Africa does not have ideal conditions for crop production [ ] Genetic modification provides a way of meeting the growing demand for food without placing even greater pressure on scarce resources. 13 Multinationals are therefore actively engaged in the country. Around two thirds of the commercial market is controlled by the ten biggest companies, four of which are among the top ten international brands (Monsanto, Sakata, Syngenta and DuPont). While still being a small market when compared to Brazil, Argentina and the USA, the share of GM crops in the total production of maize, cotton and soybean are respectively 62 percent, 96 percent and 88 percent. 14 Moreover, market concentration in these specific crop sectors is higher than in the seed market as a whole. Monsanto and Pannar, a local seed company, almost monopolise the wheat and maize seed production, while Monsanto is the only producer of cottonseeds. 15 Not surprisingly, many observers think that multinationals are determined to use South Africa as a launching pad for GM crops in the rest of Africa. 7

12 Brazil The Brazilian seed market accounts for 7.6 percent of the world market, with an estimated value of $1.9 billion, in 2007, the fourth largest market in the world. 16 Like South Africa, Brazil has undergone a series of legal changes throughout the 1990s that have boosted seed market concentration as well as penetration by multinational companies. Brazil is a signatory of the 1978 UPOV Convention and plant variety protection is mainstreamed in the domestic legislation by Law n of 1997, which recognizes the granting of plant variety protection certificates. The holder of this certificate enjoys protection of the reproducing and vegetative propagating material of the whole plant for a period of 15 years. However, breeders rights are not considered infringed when a small rural producer multiplies seed for donation or exchange in dealings exclusively with other small rural producers, under programs of financing or support for small rural producers conducted by public bodies or non-governmental agencies, authorized by the Government. 18 The law provides compulsory licenses as well. In 2005, the Government passed a law on biosafety, which allows cultivation of GM crops, provided that the demand for Chart 7 Ownership of the commercial corn seed market in Brazil research and commercial distribution of the specific crop be approved by the National Technical Committee. The law has been criticized for bestowing the Committee with too much power. Also, many considered the Committee s composition as being blatantly favouring the biotechnology industry. 19 Aside from the legal framework, concentration has also been spurred by foreign corporations acquiring Brazilian firms. Data is only available regarding the production of corn and soybean seeds, which nevertheless represents 75 percent of the Brazilian seed market. As shown in chart 7, about 58 percent of the corn segment is controlled by multinationals, 21 percent by Brazilian companies and the remainder by public research institutions. Monsanto alone accounts for 20 percent of the corn seed production. In the soybean segment, multinationals own 28 percent of the market, while public research institutions make up 49 percent. 20 According to a survey conducted by a Brazilian media company, in 2009, the amount of land cultivated with GM seeds became larger than land sown with conventional crops. Transgenic seeds are used in 67.4 percent of the soybean area and 39.5 percent of the corn area (only one year after they had been introduced in the corn industry). In Rio Grande do Sul, the share of transgenic soybean on the total soybean area is as high as 95 percent. 21 Finally, as far as the non-commercial slice of the market is concerned, the average use of farmer-saved corn and soybean seeds equals 16 percent and 45 percent, respectively. 22 Multinationals 58 % Brazilian companies 21 % Public institutions 21 % The United States of America With an estimated value of $8.5 billion, the US seed market is the largest in the world (the EU one is bigger but it includes 27 countries). 23 At the same time, it boasts one of the highest rates of adoption of GM crops and of market concentration. GM seeds were easily accepted soon after they were introduced in According to the 8

13 US National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), nowadays, 85 percent of the domestic corn acreage, 88 percent of the soybean and 86 percent of the cotton ones are genetically engineered (GE) crops. 24 The concentration trend, for its part, is embodied in the global seed market leader, Monsanto, which dominates the US market. Either through the brands it owns or through seed traits 25 licensing agreements, Monsanto controls 60 percent of the corn seed, 62 percent of the soybean and about 40 percent Chart 8 Monsanto s share of the US commercial soybean seed market Monsanto 60 % Other companies 40 % Chart 9 Monsanto s share of the US commercial corn seed market Monsanto 62 % Other companies 38 % of the vegetable seed markets. With regard to genetically engineered seeds, concentration figures are even higher. Monsanto s traits make up 80 percent of the US corn acreage, 91 percent of the soybean and 95 percent of the cotton one, while 95 percent of sugar beets planted in the United States possess the Monsanto s Roundup Ready trait. It is then no surprise that such a concentration has made prices soar. In 2009, hybrid corn and soybean seeds were, on average, 30 percent and 25 percent more expensive than they were in Members of the US seed industry reacted to this price hike and called for an antitrust inquiry into the concentration of the seed market, criticizing the anti-competitive practices of the biggest companies. 26 Although they signed the 1991 UPOV Act, the United States still grants patents for asexually reproduced plants. In principle, the law fairly balances breeders and farmers rights. On the one hand, the 1970 Plant Variety Protection Act endows plant breeders with exclusive marketing rights for 18 years. 27 On the other hand, farmers are allowed to re-sow their own seeds and even to sell them, provided that the sale is...a bona fide sale for other than reproductive purposes Yet, Monsanto has sought, and often obtained, legal prosecution of those US farmers who plant saved seeds of Monsanto s protected varieties. The European Union The European seed market is valued at $9.5 billion and it is the second biggest regional market, on a par with North America. The EU is also the first global seed exporter with an estimated export value of $3.9 billion, equal to 60 percent of the global export value. 29 Although they have roughly the same size, the European market differs from the American one. On the one hand, market concentration is lower in Europe. No specific data is available on the EU market, but it is possible to estimate concentration by using European sales figures of the four biggest 9

14 Chart 10 Top 4 corporations share of the European commercial seed market Syngenta 11 % Other companies 70 % Groupe Limagrain 10 % KWS 7 % Bayer 3 % European companies (Syngenta, Groupe Limagrain, KWS and Bayer CropScience). The four firms share of the $9.5 billion European seed market is approximately 30 percent. 30 This seems to confirm the claim that the European seed industry, mostly made up of small and medium enterprises 31, is less concentrated than the American and the global markets. 32 On the other hand, European governments and citizens are wary of letting GM crops cross their borders. Only one GM crop is allowed for cultivation in the European Union (note that member countries can chose to ban it, as France did in 2008). This is GM maize resistant to insects (Bt. maize). Nevertheless, its rate of adoption has been lower than two percent so far. 33 Saving seeds still seems to be a widespread practice in some European countries. In France, for instance, it is believed that 50 percent of self-pollinating crops 34 are raised by means of farm-saved seeds, while they account for 90 percent of all major crops in Poland. 35 Curiously, this happens despite legislation that forbids exchange and sale of saved seeds and that defends the intellectual property rights of seed corporations. 36 Plant variety protection within the European Union has been introduced by Regulation 2100/94 of 27 July 1994, aligning with the 1991 UPOV Convention, in which the EU takes part as a regional organization. Breeders can obtain 25 year-long rights applicable in the entire Union by filing a single application to the Community Plant Variety Office, a simplified procedure that has contributed to the harmonisation of plant variety protection laws among EU member states. Under the regulation, farmers are allowed to re-sow their own harvested seed without infringing any breeders right, but they have to pay a royalty, not higher than 50 percent of the normal price of the seed. Small farmers do not have to pay. 37 Tanzania In Tanzania, agriculture is dominated by smallholders and traditional farming, and 80 percent of Tanzanians work in agriculture. 38 As shown in Chart 11, 90 percent of seeds are produced by farmers. Recently, the government has called for a sector reform with the aim of increasing the share of improved seed used by farmers to raise food production by ten percent per year and halve the poverty rate by The government had already reformed the seed sector in the 1990s, opening up the industry to private production. Recently, the reform has been 10

15 Chart 11 Share of farmer saved seeds in Tanzania s seed industry continued by means of the 2002 Protection Commercial seeds 10 % Saved seeds 90 % of New Plant Varieties (Plant Breeders Rights) Act and the 2003 Seed Act. The Plant Breeders Rights Act introduced a sui generis system, which resembles the 1978 version of UPOV. It bestows upon breeders of a new variety exclusive rights for 20 years to sell, reproduce and multiply propagating material of the variety, or to stock the variety for any of these purposes, while assuring that the Act shall not affect the fulfilment of the Government s obligations pertaining to the protection of farmers rights to equitably share and access to traditional cultivars and germ plasm. 40 However, the rights of farmers are not further specified in the Act. The Seed Act established the Tanzanian Seed Certification Institute, tasking it with enforcing the legislation on seeds. 41 Thus, improved seeds are slowly spreading in the commercial seed market and the government is also pushing to introduce GM crops. The former public company TANSEED International, the most important actor in the domestic industry, has recently introduced new maize varieties that have improved dramatically the productivity of 50 demonstration plots. 42 Monsanto and DuPont are present in the market along with TANSEED, but they do not control a substantial share of the industry. Cambodia Cambodia mostly relies on traditional agriculture to eke out a living. In 2005, about 70 percent of the population tilled the fields and agriculture accounted for about 30 percent of GDP. 43 Rice, which is grown on 90% of the cultivable area, was the main target of a series of state programmes, funded by international and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), aiming at improving productivity and expanding the cultivated area. Thus, in 1995, the country achieved food self-sufficiency and then turned into a net exporter of rice. The government also introduced improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, thus bringing the productivity per hectare from 1.3 tons in the early 1990s to 2.1 tons in Rice seeds are developed and distributed by semi-private institutions like AQIP Seed Company (a joint venture owned by the government and private sector members), the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the Rice As shown in Chart 12, the Thai Charoen Pokphand Group owns 75 percent of Cambodia s corn seed market. The widespread use of hybrid seeds in this segment, with a rate of adoption of 90%-95%, is surprising. The change occurred around 2003 and it is purported to have been brought about by a mysterious disease, called yellowing disease. Hybrids imported from abroad, in fact, were the only seeds resistant to this new disease. Some sources point out that the yellowing disease started soon after foreign hybrids were introduced in the country. According to them, this is more than a simple coincidence. Source: PURTILL CORINNE, ROEUN VANN, Seeds of Discontent, The Cambodia Daily, November

16 Research Institute. Most farmers then harvest and re-sow the seeds they have received in the following seasons. 44 However, it is estimated that AQIP is able to supply only ten percent of the estimated domestic demand for improved seeds. 45 As of 2003, there were no private seed and fertilizer corporations operating in the country. 46 More recently, foreign companies have made inroads into the Cambodian market. This is the case with Kasekor Khmer Rongroeung Co Ltd, a joint venture between the Singapore-based Sunland Agritech and Malaynesia Resources. In 2008, the company distributed seeds and fertilizers to Cambodian farmers and started operating a 2 hectares test plot, which it plans to expand to 200 hectares. 47 Migration to hybrids has already occurred in the corn sector, where the Thai company Charoen Pokphand Group successfully sold hybrids to Cambodian farmers (see box). Today, hybrids represent about percent of the national corn production and the market share of the Group is between 70 and 80 percent 48, while the remainder is shared by public programmes and multinationals like DuPont. 49 Cambodia is currently drafting a law on seed and breeders rights, which has been reviewed by UPOV for conformity with the 1991 Convention. 50 Chart 12 Structure of the commercial corn seed market in Cambodia Other companies 25 % Charoen Pokphand Group 75 % 12

17 Endnotes 1 PARESH VERMA, The Indian Seed Industry, Country Report, National Seeds Association of India, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 2 SHRIVASTAVA ARUN, The Silent War on the People of India, thepeoplevoice.org, 22 March 2009, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 3 SINGH PUSHPRAJ, Seed Industry in India Poised for a Leap, New Agriculturist Online, info/01-2/focuson/focuson6.html (accessed on 9 April 2010) 4 RAVI BALA, The Conflict Between Seed Bill and PPVFR Act of India, Lessons for other South Asian Countries, Sout Asian Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment, Policy Brief n. 19, 2009, p. 3 5 SUMAN SAHAI, India s Plant Variety and Farmers Rights Act, in Bridges, Year 5, n. 8, October Idem 7 RAVI BALA, op. cit., pp LE BUANEC BERNARD, Evolution of the Seed Industry During the Past 40 Years, speech held at the opening ceremony of the 2008 International Seed Federation Seed Congress, text available at inf.br/ingles/seed124/artigocapa124a_ing.shtml (accessed on 9 April 2010) 9 BIOWATCH, Why Diversity Matters: Genetic Engineering and Farming, in Genetic Engineering in Food and Farming, 2002, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 10 BARRON NADINE, COUZENS ED, Intellectual Property Rights and Plant Variety Protection in South Africa: An International Perspective, in Journal of Environmental Law, Vol. 16, n. 1, Oxford University Press 2004, p VAN DER WALT WYNAND, Economic Policy Research Study on Status of Plant Variety Protection in the SADC Region, Country Reports for South Africa, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbawe, FANR- PAN, 10 November 2005, p ZERBE NOHA, Contesting Privatization: NGO and Farmers Rights in the African Model Law, in Global Environmental Politics, 7.1, 2007, pp GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, South Africa s Yearbook 2008/2009, p OAKLAND INSTITUTE, Biotechnology, Seed and Agrochemicals: Global and South African Industry Structure and Trends, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 15 BIOWATCH, What Is South Africa Doing About Genetically Engineered Crops, October 2004, biowatch.org.za/main.asp?include=pubs/briefings/index.html, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 16 MARCOS-FILHO JULIO, Seed Industry in Brazil, Ohio State University GOVERNMENT OF BRAZIL, Law n. 9,456, April 1997, art Idem, art. 10(IV) 19 CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON GLOBALIZATION, GM Seeds: Biowarfare in Globalization, April 2, 2005, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 20 CORDEIRO ANGELA, PEREZ JULIAN, GUAZZELLI MARIA JOSE, Potential Impact of the Terminator Technology on Agricultural Production: Statement from Brazilian Farmers, Florianopolis, December 2007, Centro Ecologico/ETC Group, pp FERREIRA GIOVANI, ROCHER JOSE, Brazilian Farmers Turn to GM Soybean, Bt Corn, 12 August 2009, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 22 CORDEIRO ANGELA, PEREZ JULIAN, GUAZZELLI MARIA JOSE, op. cit., p. 8 The data about the area cultivated with GM soybean and that about the use of farmer-saved seeds seem inconsistent with each other. How can 67% of the soybean area be sown with GM seed, usually protected by IPRs, if 45% of the soybean seeds are saved by farmers? The answer seems to lie in the fact that this seed is smuggled from neighbouring Argentina, where GM soybean was introduced earlier. According to some authors, this smuggling activity has caused the removal of the ban on GM soybean by the Brazilian government in They believe that some seed corporations pushed smuggling of GM soybean seeds from Argentina to Brazil to build up later a case for infringment of their intellectual property rights, thus urging the government to recognise the reality on the ground and allow the cultivation of GM soybean. 23 INTERNATIONAL SEED FEDERATION, Estimated Value of the Domestic Market in Selected Countries, June 2008, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 24 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (UNSDA), Adoption of Genetically Engineered Crops in the US, July 1, 2009, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 13

18 25 In genetics, traits are those distinct features of a living organism that can be inherited or environmentally determined and which are the result of many molecular and biochemical processes. In this specific case, we mean those distinct features of a seed which are brought about by a genetic modification operated by a seed company. 26 HUBBARD KRISTINA, Out of Hand, Farmers Face the Consequence of a Consolidated Seed Industry, Farmer to Farmer Campaign, December 2009, pp (accessed on 9 April 2010) 27 STRACHAN JANICE M., Plant Variety Protection, an Alternative to Patents, in Probe 2(2), Summer UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Plant Variety Protection Act and Regulations and Rules of Practice, Agricultural Marketing Service, March 2001, section EUROPEAN SEED ASSOCIATION, Addedum II, The European Seed Industry: Some Basic Facts and Figures, 20 June 2007, ESA 07_0243.5A2, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 30 This figure is probably an overestimate since the data we used for Syngenta concerns Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Figures have been drawn from statistics provided by corporations in their annual reports. See Appendix I. 31 EUROPEAN SEED ASSOCIATION, op. cit. 32 As presented at the beginning of the report, the top four global corporations own 39% of the global seed market and Monsanto alone enjoys an impressive dominance on the US market. 33 The total acreage sown with GM maize is 107,717 hectares, while the EU total agricultural area is equal to 180 million hectares. Spain is the only country that makes extensive use of Bt. maize, with a rate of adoption of about 13%. Data drawn from: GMO COMPASS, GM Maize: 108,000 Hectares Under Cultivation, gmo-compass.org/eng/agri_biotechnology/gmo_planting/392.gm_maize_cultivation_europe_2008.html (accessed on 9 April 2010) 34 Self-pollinating crops are those which do not need an external pollinator but can reproduce by themselves, since they are endowed with both stigma and stamen. Few plants are actually self-pollinating, like peanuts. Soybean is partially self-pollinating. 35 GRAIN, The End of Farm-Saved Seed? Industry s Wish List for the Next Revision of UPOV, February 2007, p. 4, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 36 KASTLER GUY, Europe s Seed Law: Locking out Farmers, Seedling, GRAIN, July 2005, pp Idem. 38 GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA, Agriculture, agriculture.html (accessed on 9 April 2010). 39 MUSHI DEOGRATIAS, Improved Seeds Help Boost Crop Production, Daily News, August 20, 2008, dailynews.habarileo.co.tz/editorial/index.php?id=6711 (accessed on 9 April 2010) 40 GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA, Protection of New Plant Varieties (Plant Breeders Rights) Act, November 2002, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 41 MUSHI DEOGRATIAS, op. cit. 42 See AFRICACROPS.NET, NSIMA Project Impacts: CIMMYT QPM Hybrid and Normal OPVs registered by Tanseed in Tanzania, November 2006, (accessed on 9 April 2010); AGRA, Seed Celebration in Tanzania, 2007, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 43 FOOD AND FERTILIZERS TECHNOLOGY CENTER, Table 21: Share of Agriculture in GDP, agnet.org/situationer/stats/21.html (accessed on 9 April 2010) 44 SHAKCHAI PREECHJARN, Grain and Feed, Grain Industry in Cambodia, USDA, 2006, p.6 45 WORLD BANK, For a Proposed Global Food Crisis Response Program Grant in the Amount of US$8.0 Million and a Proposed Credit in the Amount of SDR3.3 Million (Equivalent to US$5.0 Million) to the Kingdom of Cambodia, Report n KH, July 19, 2009, p ROBERTS ANDREW, The Benefit of Crop Protection Products (CPPs) from a Seed Company Perspective, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 47 GRAIN, Cambodia, Landgrabbing and Hybrid Rice, 21 November 2008, hybridrice/?lid=211 (accessed on 9 April 2010) 48 SHAKCHAI PREECHJARN, op. cit., p FINCH STEVE, MULLINS JEREMY, Du Pont to Sell Farming Products in Cambodia, December 3, 2009, (accessed on 9 April 2010) 50 UPOV, Council 42nd Ordinary Session, Geneva, October 20, 2008, para

19 Part Two - The Food Market Global Perspective This section provides an overview of the food industry, one step up the food supply chain. Broadly speaking, the industry can be divided into the processing sector, i.e. manufacturing and packaging of food, and the retail sector, i.e. distribution and selling. As Chart 13 shows, the food processing industry is less concentrated than the seed and the pesticides sectors. The share of the top ten global corporations in the global market is 28 percent and the top five companies account for 18 percent. Therefore, we cannot talk about an oligopoly in the global food processing market. 1 Moreover, as illustrated in Chart 14, concentration has not substantially increased over the last eight years. However, this is not the case with food retail. Here, the top 15 global supermarket companies represent more than 30 percent of global sales. 2 As stated by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Chart 13 Top 10 corporations share of the global food processing market Other companies 72 % Total top % Nestlé (Switzerland) 26 % PepsiCo Inc. (USA) 12 % Kraft Foods (USA) 12 % Danone (France) 6 % The Coca-Cola Company (USA) 9 % Archer Daniels Midland Company (USA) Unilever (The Netherlands) 7 % 6 % Tyson Foods (USA) Mars (USA) 8 % 7 % Cargill (USA) 7 % 15

20 Sales in US $ billion 1' ' Food retail Chart 14 Sales evolution in food retail and food processing 2001/ Food processing the right to food, Oliver De Schutter,... global retailers and fast food chains are expanding... 3,. This is evidenced by data showing that the top 10 retail corporations have more than doubled their share of the global food retail market since While the food retail sector has followed the concentration path that other industries have been treading for the last twenty years, the food processing sector seems not to have undergone the same trend. From the companies perspective, the reason for this lies in the fact that the processing industry is not as close to customers as food retailers are and, thereby, is adjusting more slowly to their tastes. Such adjustment is also more expensive, since customers in different countries have different tastes, hampering the centralisation of production sought by corporations in order to realize economies of scale. 4 For the same reason, market concentration, which is not yet of concern globally, can be higher for specific product lines or in national markets. 5 Note that the skyrocketing increase in market concentration in the food retail sector can have negative consequences on the supply chain. This is clearly the case with Wal-Mart, the global leader in food retail. The rapid growth of the company not only threatens market competition in general, but it also tends to reduce wages and working standards in the food industry as a whole. With over $400 billion in sales, the company is able to impose its own prices on suppliers, squeezing out revenues from smaller companies along the supply chain. 6 As De Schutter noted...due to deeply unequal bargaining positions of food producers and consumers on the one hand, and buyers and retailers on the other hand, the latter can continue to pay relatively low prices for crops even when the prices increase on regional or international markets, and they can continue charge high prices to consumers even though prices fall on these markets This may reduce wages and worsen working conditions of agricultural workers as well as make commodities prices soar, eventually jeopardizing the right to food. States should then protect agricultural workers through a sound labour legislation and strengthen farmers bargaining power by promoting alternative trading and distribution channels. 8 16

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